BT believe my broadband has been installed but it ...

Question

Hi all,
I'm in a frustrating situation at the moment where BT believe that my Infinity 2 Broadband has been installed when it has not been installed. I am currently being charged for Broadband and am unable to book an appointment for anyne to fit my Broadband. Furthermore, the call centre and online chat people do not appear to know anything about Infinity and the white fibre modem. This is the story so far:
I moved house on the 20th Febraury and booked an appointment a week later to have my broadband installed. I get my appointment for the 5th March for the install. It's a little bit of a wait but I'm fine to hold out for the 8 days.
On the 5th March, the BB engineer arrives, he's clearly one of the contractors I've heard so much about! I'm not fussed, I see no reason why this should be anything other than a routine job. After about 30 minutes of firendly chat and a few trips by the engineer to the curb and back, he informs me that the phone line is not working. In his words, "Your line is activated on the system and I can see it in the cabinet in the street, but it's not coming in to the flat, at least not through this socket.". "Can you fix it?" I ask naively. "Nah, I only deal with the broadband install, I can't touch the line!". I'm frustrated but I understand it's not his fault. Perhaps my disappointment was evident and shared by the contractor as he informed me, "I'm as annoyed as you are, I don't get paid unless I can mark the job as complete!". In a brief conversation following this, I found out the company he worked for was "Quinn" something and that he would raise the fault for me on the line so that someone could come and fix that.
Although frustrated at this point, I had no problems with the contractor, he seemed fair and his explanation of both the problem and his inability to resolve it seemed fair.
It turned out he did not raise the fault so I raised the fault on the line myself through the website when I returned to the office. The very next day, BT sent me a text saying that my Broadband had been activated. I log in to the website and see the fault I have raised on the line next to a bill for £20 - my first month's broadband charge. My assumption at this point is that the contractor either deliberately closed the job he had for my broadband as completed or accidentally did so (I believe a responsible contractor would have corrected the latter mistake).
So the engineer to fix my line was due on the 7th before 1pm. I take another half day off work and sit and wait. I hear literally nothing from BT all day and by 14:30 I give up and go to work. I call the team in India to reschedule and they assure me this time that he will come on the 8th before 1pm. To avoid me waiting in and missing more work, the lady on the phone says she will inform the engineer to call me 30 minutes before he arrives at my house so I can make my way there in time (I work 20 minutes away). On the 8th, in the middle of a meeting, I get a call from a BT engineer asking me how to operate the gates to the flats. "Oh. You're already there?" I ask. "Yeah, are you not in?" he replies. "No, I was told you would call me 30 minutes before so I could get back there to let you in!". "Well I can't wait 30 minutes mate, I'll just have to sit here for 15 and then mark the job as unable to complete.". Somehow, we mutually agree that if I ca get home in 20 minutes, the engineer will wait for me to let him in. Luckily I make it inside 15 anyway and let him in.
This guy is from OpenReach and I have to say, despite what might have been a bad start, he was nothing but professional in doing his job and explaining the problems as he went along. It may have taken around an hour, but eventually my phone line was up and running. Regardless of my experience with the Broadband guy, this is the level of service I would expect when I have a problem with a service provider.
So now here I am. It's the 11th following a weekend where I failed to visit my mother for Mother's Day whilst simulataneously using it as an excuse to get nothing done at home, including calling BT. I have just made that call where I soent 5 minutes struggling to communicate with one woman who decided that my Broadband had been installed and maybe I just needed help plugging it in. I'm seeing the funny side and after explianing several times what has happened, I get put through to "Level 2" (sounds like I'm playing a game!). The Level 2 person has a faulty headset which means that the most important word in each sentence is completely replaced with white noise. I feel a little embarrassed that I have to ask her to repeat everything. She then seems to identify the problem and apologises multiple times for the errors on BT's part as she types furiously on her keyboard (I'm not sure if it was furious but I can hear it through the dodgy headset). For some reason I'm transferred to my mobile where she calls me (it's convenient and I'm sure the reason was explianed behind the white noise somewhere) and after a wait littered with apologies, I am asked to hold on while she just...
...and then there's silence. Silence broken only with me saying "Hello?" multiple times in many different ways. After about 90 seconds, I explain that I can't hear anything (in the hope someone is hearing but not able to speak back) and that I'm going to hang up.
And that's when I decided to write this post, whilst waiting for the call back. It hasn't come. I'll keep you all posted but in the meantime it would be nice to know where I can send a letter to voice my frustration and also how I can get my money back for the Broadband that I am still unable to use.
Thanks!
Dan

Answer 1

If you would like to contact one of the UK based BT Care Team who moderate this forum, they should be able to help you.
They can be contacted using this link BT Care Team
They normally respond by phone or e-mail, within three working days, however you should get an immediate confirmation, with a tracking number.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.